UNIVERSITY  OF   CALIFORNIA  AGRICULTURAL  EXPERIMENT  STATION 

COLLEGE  OF    AGRICULTURE  benj.  Ide  Wheeler,  President 

BERKELEY,  CALIFORNIA  Thomas  Forsyth  Hunt.  Dean  and  Director 


CIRCULAR  No.  88. 


ADVANTAGES  TO  THE  BREEDER  IN  TESTING  HIS  PURE- 
BRED COWS  FOR  THE  REGISTER  OF  MERIT. 

By  Cora  J.  Hill. 

1.  It  shows  him  beyond  a  doubt  the  amount  of  milk  and  butter 
his  cows  will  produce ;  giving  him  records  that  will  not  be  ques- 
tioned, and  officially  stamps  the  good  producers  with  vastly  greater 
values. 

2.  It  furnishes  him  with  an  intelligent  and  reliable  breeding  guide 
for  greater  improvement  in  conformity  of  production.  It  enables 
him,  by  means  of  the  official  records,  to  select  his  best  producers. 
What  a  cow  will  produce  at  freshening  time  is  no  indication  of 
what  her  milk  and  butter  yield  will  be  for  the  year.  We  have  the 
statement,  of  one  breeder  of  pure-bred  cattle  in  California,  that 
"the  real  value  of  some  of  his  world  famous  cows  would  never 
have  been  known  had  it  not  been  for  the  official  test."  Every  pos- 
sible means  should  be  used  by  the  breeder  of  dairy  cattle  to  increase 
the  average  yearly  production  of  his  cows. 

3.  Sires  of  Advanced  Registry  daughters  are  thereby  rendered 
vastly  more  valuable. 

4.  It  at  once  places  good  values  on  all  the  calves  and  young  stock 
from  cows  with  Advanced  Registry  records,  transferring  them  from 
the  butcher's  block,  with  a  profit  of  but  a  few  dollars,  to  the  breeder 
or  dairyman's  herd  at  prices  many  times  beyond  the  original  figures. 

5.  It  is  the  means  of  creating  an  interest,  in  the  owner  and  hired 
help,  in  the  individual  merits  of  the  herd  and  leads  to  more  intelli- 
gent, careful  handling  and  feeding;  rendering  possible  additional 
and  better  records,  with  correspondingly  better  returns. 

6.  It  is  one  of  the  best  possible  means  of  advertising.  Advanced 
Registry  records  are  published  by  the  cattle  clubs  and  widely  distrib- 
uted. This  attracts  buyers  from  abroad  as  well  as  at  home.  Breeders 
who  are  doing  the  most  official  testing  admit  that  there  is  a  grow- 
ing demand  for  officially  tested  stock  and  their  offspring,  and  they 
urge  all  breeders  to  take  up  the  test  in  order  to  supply  this  demand 
and  establish  a  reputation  for  California  as  a  breeding  center. 

7.  The  Agricultural  Experiment  Station,  University  of  California, 
Berkeley,  supervises  the  work  of  testing  cows  for  the  Advanced 
Register  and  the  Register  of  Merit.     No  dairyman  with  a  pure-bred 

(1) 


—  2  — 

herd  can  afford  to  neglect  the  opportunity  of  securing  official  tests 
of  his  cows,  which  the  Experiment  Station  is  offering  him.  Inquiries 
regarding  the  particulars  of  tests  are  solicited. 


Note. — The  Advanced  Register  and  the  Register  of  Merit  are  systems  of  books, 
published  by  the  various  dairy  cattle  clubs  and  associations,  in  which  are  recorded 
the  names  and  official  records  of  production  of  registered  pure-bred  dairy  cattle. 
Animals  eligible  for  entry  in  such  Registers  must  conform  to  certain  rules  of  the 
breed  associations  and  clubs  and  produce,  within  a  given  time,  a  certain  amount 
of  milk  and  butter,  varying  according  to  the  age  of  the  cows  under  test. 


